DeShawn Stevenson: ‘Billy Hunter is Doing a Horrible Job’

DeShawn Stevenson is less than impressed with the folks guiding NBA players in this lockout, particularly Billy Hunter. From Yahoo! Sports: “For me, personally, I don’t think there will be a season,’ Mavericks guard DeShawn Stevenson said recently at Drew Gooden’s Make-A-Wish charity game. ‘Right now there is just a lot of bad blood and [the owners] keep putting offers out that we’re rejecting. So we’re not going anywhere.’ Stevenson thinks the owners have been slow to recognize how much the players have already conceded in negotiations, but he also points blame at someone else: Billy Hunter, executive director of the players’ former union. ‘I felt like we should have decertified in July,’ Stevenson said. ‘I feel like Billy Hunter is doing a horrible job because basically now [the owners] know our hand. The media knows our hand. The owners know our hand.’ Hunter pointed out that Stevenson hasn’t had a direct role in the negotiations. ‘DeShawn is entitled to his opinion,’ Hunter said. ‘It would be much more meaningful if he were more directly involved and would have understood what fully transpired and understood the issues. I think he’d be better informed. I respect DeShawn’s right to say and feel what he is saying. I can’t fault that. I don’t have nothing negative about DeShawn. He said it. It’s not justified, but he has every right in the world to say what he thinks.’ Jason Terry, the Mavs’ representative for the Players Association, was in New York on Nov. 14 when the union decided to disband. He said the players had ‘no choice’ but to turn down the NBA’s latest offer and that Mavs All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki supported the decision.”